Waiting in the wings Apprehension, public speaking and performance

Abstract

Inexperienced speakers were tested shortly before they presented colloquium papers at a public forum. Increases in anxiety and arousal were found using subjective and ECG measures. Performance deteriorated in digit span and verbal fluency but not in logical reasoning, tick length or the Stroop test. However, degree ofdecrement was small and rate of accumulatingdata slow, suggesting this is not an ideal situation for studying the effects of apprehension on performance, IntroductionThe question of how fear and anxiety influence performance is one ofconsiderable practical significance. Whether the fear is experienced by a soldier in battle, a victim in a natural disaster or a student in an examination, his ability to hnction efficiently is likely to be'crucial, and any decrement in cognitive performance could have significance out of all proportion to its apparent magnitude. For that reason, there has over the years been a great deal written on the influence of fear on performance. Unfortunately, however, there can be few areas in which the ratio ofobjective evidence to anecdote and speculation is so low.

Fear and performance in novice parachutists

“…Our results hence replicate the various observations of an effect of anxiety on span (e.g. Moldawsky andMoldawsky 1952, Idzikowski andBaddeley 1983 b).…”

“…In both this study and our previous experiment using public speaking (Idzikowski and Baddeley 1983 b), decrements in cognitive performance were observed, but in both cases the magnitude of these effects was far from large. There are a number of possible reasons for this.…”

“…This point can only be tested by finding situations in which subjects are tested under higher degrees of anxiety, logistically a far from simple task. For the present, however, we do have clear indications that the degree of apprehension experienced by our subjects in both the pre-jump phase of the present study and in the period before public speaking in our earlier study (Idzikowski and Baddeley 1983 b) are indeed sufficient to produce impairment in intellectual performance which, though not dramatic, should certainly Downloaded by [New York University] at 14:05 11 April 2015…”

Public speaking arousal as a function of anticipatory activation and autonomic reactivity

“…Porhola (1999), for example, reported that speakers with moderately elevated heart rates demonstrated high levels of public speaking competence while those with precipitously faster heart rates gave presentations of much poorer quality. Excessive physiological arousal contributes to the inefficient use of memory resources (Idzikowski & Baddeley, 1983), and diminishes the efficiency of cognitive processing during performance (Mendl, 1999). Consequently, excessive arousal has been associated with disruptions and inhibited behavior during public speaking (Beatty, Dobos, Balfantz, & Kuwabara, 1991;Freeman, Sawyer, & Behnke, 1997).…”

An Unexpected Wait Before Testifying Increases Nervousness in Witnesses

“…The situation of giving testimony is a high anxiety condition. In their study of apprehension in public speaking, Idzikowski and Baddeley (1983) found that subjects were more tense and troubled and showed an increase in heart rate before speaking. It is therefore important to understand whether this apprehension is exacerbated by waiting for a time before testifying and, if it is, whether this is noticed and interpreted by the juror in a manner that could be detrimental to the presentation of the facts of the case.…”